Simplify your life, one day at a time

I don’t have an update this week. Our renters are moving out and we are getting ready to remodel their side of our duplex. So money is all staying put right now and we will begin withdrawing some money from the House Fund to get the place looking amazingly better. I’ll make sure to take before and after pictures for anyone interested 😀 So, for the next 2-3 weeks, I’ll be quiet on the Friday posting, but I hope to return with some great ideas on how to save money with remodels. We aren’t doing major work – I hope, I haven’t been over there to see if there is major damage on top of the remodeling we want to do – we just want to redo the countertops, new kitchen sink and new flooring. Which will really spruce the place up.

Big news – my husband gets dental insurance starting next week. That means in 6 months 80% of his major dental work will be covered. This is such a blessing. However, he still needs work done before that, so we’ll still have to pitch in several thousands. We knew this was coming eventually. But unfortunately I don’t think he can wait another 6 months, he’s actually heading in for his appointment next week to get the tally of damage.

“When real faith grips you, you develop a mind-set that looks for the best in everything, refuses to give up, finds a way around or through every obstacle, and presses on to victory.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Have you started a money makeover? What are you planning on paying CASH for? What bill are you paying off? Share a bit of your story! No story is too small to share! Real life stories keep Carrie motivated 😀 Catch up on Our Story to see how far we’ve come.

So, Hubby’s work is coming out with a dental plan. Not sure when it will take into effect though. Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if we could get the majority of the work done instead of just the first step for the amount we have saved? OR stick with the first step and put the remainder into our House Fund? We will see what happens…

House Fund – Goal $30,000.00 by 3/31/2013. After playing around and around on a mortgage calculator punching in numbers and comparing them month to month to what we are currently at, it looks like it will be in our favor to refinance. So, before Hubby decides against it, I’ll give the call to get it going. Even after paying for 6 years already, we will pay SO much less in interest, starting right away the first month compared to what we are paying in interest currently. It does push our loan out 6 years, but that’s only if I don’t put an extra payment or two towards the principle 😀 I just have to be very good about saving that extra money every month and not spending it. You think I can do it? Of course I can. And unless something changes, we will buy in the spring. The houses I’m looking at and really liking are about $20-30,000 above our price range. So, we’ll suck it up in this little tiny two bedroom with four kids for another 9 months. We’ve done the whole 9 month waiting game four other times if you get my hint, so it will go by fast. I hope. I also gave Hubby the go-ahead to buy a boat that is right for him. He was going to take the tax return this next spring and buy one, but we talked and if the right one comes up, he can buy it now and the tax return in the spring will be put towards the house.

The following are the other loans we currently have, but will put them on the back burner as we save for a house bigger than a 2-bedroom for our family of SIX 😀 We plan on keeping the duplex we currently own, and renting out the side we currently live in, thus earning more money each month that will pay these off for us 😀

Hubby’s Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $9395

Outstanding Balance is $8,978.44

My Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $6480

Outstanding Balance is $6,250.82

Family Loan $3000 – I was told to keep this and put this towards a new house, since the person doesn’t need this money right now 😀 Bonus 😀

Whoops – Here’s the procrastination post AGAIN 😀 I need to work on getting these put together. But I keep running to the bank Friday morning and I don’t make it back before 9am. You still love me, right?

“When real faith grips you, you develop a mind-set that looks for the best in everything, refuses to give up, finds a way around or through every obstacle, and presses on to victory.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Have you started a money makeover? What are you planning on paying CASH for? What bill are you paying off? Share a bit of your story! No story is too small to share! Real life stories keep Carrie motivated 😀 Catch up on Our Story to see how far we’ve come.

So, Hubby’s work is coming out with a dental plan. Not sure when it will take into effect though. Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if we could get the majority of the work done instead of just the first step for the amount we have saved? OR stick with the first step and put the remainder into our House Fund? We will see what happens…

House Fund – Goal $15,000.00 by 7/31/2011. Talk about speedbumps…We have not refinanced yet. Long story and lots of playing around with a mortgage calculator online. We are trying to figure things out – not just getting monthly income, but our longterm goal is to get equity. So we are figuring all this out. Ugh. Sometimes being a grownup is no fun. Also, we will be chatting with someone that wanted to rent our side this fall, and if they no longer want to, we are going to save up even more and buy next spring. This way, we can get a really nice house because we’ll have a bigger downpayment. The houses we can afford right now are fine, but I don’t want to settle for “fine” – I want a beautiful home 😀 So stay tuned…

Deposited $0 in leftover income, to be honest, I messed up the checkbook. Wouldn’t it be nice to never balance a checkbook again…someday…

The following are the other loans we currently have, but will put them on the back burner as we save for a house bigger than a 2-bedroom for our family of SIX 😀 We plan on keeping the duplex we currently own, and renting out the side we currently live in, thus earning more money each month that will pay these off for us 😀

Hubby’s Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $9395

Outstanding Balance is $8,978.44

My Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $6480

Outstanding Balance is $6,250.82

Family Loan $3000 – I was told to keep this and put this towards a new house, since the person doesn’t need this money right now 😀 Bonus 😀

I “wasted” $7.00 today. I did. I paid $1.29 for a one pound loaf of bread I could have made myself, $1.59 on Diet Dr. Pepper I didn’t need and $4.29 for a dozen cookies from a gas station. Why did I do this? Because I promised my 8 year old explorer that I would take him and a friend to a local park for a picnic and an afternoon of toad hunting and I talked my girls into coming along too.

Now, if I were a little more organized and self-disciplined, I could have kept that promise for free. But I’m not. And I’ve discovered something – sometimes a splurge is worth it. We spent 2 hours at the park before my girls ran out of patience and energy. The boys could have gone 2 more hours traipsing through the sloppy shore of the park pond looking for toads, feathers, shells and who knows what else. They are already planning the next trip.

We didn’t find any toads, by the way. We did have a great time, relatively unplugged (I did take a couple photos on my phone) and spent the afternoon outside on a gorgeous Minnesota afternoon. Sometimes “simple” really is simple, no big plans or elaborate preparations, just good old fashioned fun.

Whoops – Here’s the procrastination post haha 😀 I forgot to write this up last night after work…

“When real faith grips you, you develop a mind-set that looks for the best in everything, refuses to give up, finds a way around or through every obstacle, and presses on to victory.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Have you started a money makeover? What are you planning on paying CASH for? What bill are you paying off? Share a bit of your story! No story is too small to share! Real life stories keep Carrie motivated 😀 Catch up on Our Story to see how far we’ve come.

So, Hubby’s work is coming out with a dental plan. Not sure when it will take into effect though. Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if we could get the majority of the work done instead of just the first step for the amount we have saved? OR stick with the first step and put the remainder into our House Fund? We will see what happens…

House Fund – Goal $15,000.00 by 7/31/2011. We refinance our duplex on Tuesday. I’m so excited for this. We’ll save a few hundred dollars a month, and have no payments until September I believe it is. So we will take our rental income and apply it for the next couple of months to the principle balance so we can knock this “new” mortgage down quickly. Then if someone offers to rent our side of the duplex, we’ll find a house and have more room for the kiddos and a YARD 😀 However, we are definitely hitting the summer slow on commissions and tips…

The following are the other loans we currently have, but will put them on the back burner as we save for a house bigger than a 2-bedroom for our family of SIX 😀 We plan on keeping the duplex we currently own, and renting out the side we currently live in, thus earning more money each month that will pay these off for us 😀

Hubby’s Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $9395

Outstanding Balance is $8,978.44

My Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $6480

Outstanding Balance is $6,250.82

Family Loan $3000 – I was told to keep this and put this towards a new house, since the person doesn’t need this money right now 😀 Bonus 😀

“When real faith grips you, you develop a mind-set that looks for the best in everything, refuses to give up, finds a way around or through every obstacle, and presses on to victory.”

– Norman Vincent Peale

Have you started a money makeover? What are you planning on paying CASH for? What bill are you paying off? Share a bit of your story! No story is too small to share! Real life stories keep Carrie motivated 😀 Catch up on Our Story to see how far we’ve come.

So, Hubby’s work is coming out with a dental plan. Not sure when it will take into effect though. Wouldn’t it be AWESOME if we could get the majority of the work done instead of just the first step for the amount we have saved? OR stick with the first step and put the remainder into our House Fund? We will see what happens…

House Fund – Goal $15,000.00 by 7/31/2011. Ryan and I had a chat the other night and we decided to drop the price range that we are looking at for houses. Because of this decision, WE HAVE ENOUGH SAVED! So everything from here on out until we find a new home will be saved for repairs of our current duplex and for new carpeting, paint, and any other remodeling we’ll need to do to a new home to make it our own. I cannot tell you how excited I am, and how the stress has just left my body this week knowing we are good to go 😀 However, since things unexpectedly happen all the time, I have kicked couponing into high gear again and started stockpiling food again to save even more money in the long run 😀 *squeal*

Deposited $0 in leftover income. Next week should be one of the last weeks of zero leftover income. The kids came down with Hand, Foot and Mouth disease, which is highly contagious amongst kids. And it lasts for a few days. So, with four kids, it took a while to go through our home, and I had to give up several shifts. I’m not going to lie, I’ve enjoyed my time off from work. And I’m thankful that we’ve paid off so much debt that me not working didn’t create chaos 😀 We survived with money to spare but I decided to leave that little bit in the checkbook in case our next checks are too small.

The following are the other loans we currently have, but will put them on the back burner as we save for a house bigger than a 2-bedroom for our family of SIX 😀 We plan on keeping the duplex we currently own, and renting out the side we currently live in, thus earning more money each month that will pay these off for us 😀

Hubby’s Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $9395

Outstanding Balance is $8,978.44

My Student Loan as of 10/01/2011 $6480

Outstanding Balance is $6,250.82

Family Loan $3000 – I was told to keep this and put this towards a new house, since the person doesn’t need this money right now 😀 Bonus 😀